The Georgia Cancer Coalition (GCC) released names of the top scientists engaged in the most promising areas of cancer research, and an Emory University doctor with the Avon Foundation Comprehensive Breast Cancer Center, Georgia Cancer Center for Excellence at Grady Memorial Hospital, has made the list.

Sheryl Gabram-Mendola, MD, MBA, professor of surgical oncology at Emory and director of oncologic services for the Avon Center, was one of seven from Emory out of the 29 scientists named as 2008 GCC Distinguished Cancer Clinicians and Scientists.

Each scholar will receive from $50,000 to $150,000 for five years to further his or her research efforts. The total annual GCC funding for these new Emory Scholars is $700,000 annually and $3.5 million over five years. Since its inception in 2001, the Georgia Cancer Coalition has named 113 Distinguished Scholars; 47 have been named from Emory University.

"Scholar funding is an investment not only in Georgia's future as a national leader in cancer control, but also in attracting increased funding to Georgia for cancer research," says Bill Todd, president and chief operating officer of the GCC. "The Distinguished Cancer Clinicians and Scientists program is key to the Georgia Cancer Coalition's efforts to advance scientific discovery into cancer prevention, treatment and cures. These scientists play an important role in positioning Georgia as a national leader in cancer research."

Dr. Gabram-Mendola came to Emory from Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, where she was professor of surgery. Her research focuses on disparities in care for breast cancer patients and methods for increasing access to quality care.

The Avon Foundation Comprehensive Breast Center at Grady Memorial Hospital's Georgia Cancer Center for Excellence is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary breast care program, offering a full spectrum of clinical and support services, including screening, diagnosis, treatment, counseling and laboratory research. The AFCBC was recently awarded a $ 1 million dollar grant from the Avon Foundation to further its mission to expand breast health care for medically underserved women in metropolitan Atlanta.

One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime. This year alone, an estimated 178,480 women will be diagnosed with and 40,460 women will die of breast cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.  In African-American women it is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of death exceeded only by lung cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, African-American women are two to three times more likely to die from breast cancer than women of any other racial or ethnic population.  

The breast cancer population at the AFCBC is approximately 85 percent African American, and only 16 percent of the patients are diagnosed with in situ or non-invasive breast cancers, compared to a national average of about 22 percent. Thus, with the Avon Foundation Comprehensive Breast Center and Georgia Cancer Center for Excellence housed in one of the largest public hospitals in the U.S., transformative breast health services have been brought directly to Atlanta's most medically at risk and underserved women.